There are many types of winches. In the case of a fully unwound rope, this rope can be rewound onto a rope drum in one or the other direction. In specific cases, however, it may be necessary that the rope should be wound onto the rope drum only in one specific direction. A ratchet with pawls, which lock the winding of the rope in one direction is provided in known winches. For the purpose of unwinding the rope in known winches, the pawl is disconnected so that it is initially not active at the time of rewinding and has to be reconnected first. If the operator forgets to reconnect it, the winding of the rope can occur in the opposite direction.
In European Patent application No. 02011893 is proposed a winch in which a click-stop device is combined with a releasable click-stop device, which can be operated by a manual crank of the winch. A prerequisite for a correct functioning is, however, that the click-stop device cannot be released manually, but that the switchover from the click-stop device to the brake device and vice versa is determined by the rotational direction of the manual crank. It is also a prerequisite that the rope be wound onto the rope drum in the correct direction, which however is not automatically guaranteed.